NASA warns 'risk of losing' space station .

It would be very sad if we lost the space station.

i couldnt get the link to work its too long and tinyurl wont work here
so ill quote the whole story its pretty small.

NASA warns 'risk of losing' space station rising By Jean-Louis Santini (AFP) – 3 hours ago WASHINGTON — The risk of an unprecedented evacuation of the International Space Station will spike if Russian craft cannot resume their missions and return by November, a senior NASA official has warned. "There is a greater risk of losing the ISS when it's unmanned than if it were manned," Michael Suffredini, the ISS program manager for the US space agency, said in a conference call with Russian officials. "The risk increase is not insignificant," he added. Russia on Monday delayed its next manned mission to the ISS by at least a month after an unmanned cargo vessel crashed into Siberia instead of reaching orbit on August 24. The head of Russia's manned spaceflight programme also warned that a significantly longer delay would force the six people on board the station to abandon the orbiter due to fatigue and supply problems. The station crew normally consists of six -- currently three Russians, two Americans and one Japanese -- working six-month rotations. Staff safety and the "very big investment" that the Russian and US governments have made in the ISS would guide future decisions, Suffredini said during the call on Monday. "We prefer not to operate in that condition without crew on board for an extended period of time just to make sure we end up in that situation. "But assuming the systems keep operating we can command the station from the ground and operate it on orbit indefinitely," Suffredini added. The ISS, which orbits 350 kilometers (220 miles) above Earth, is a platform for scientific experiments bringing together space agencies from Russia, the United States, Europe, Japan, and Canada. Launched in 1998, it was initially expected to remain in space for 15 years until an agreement was reached to keep it operating through 2020. An evacuation of the ISS was planned after the Columbia shuttle disaster which killed seven astronauts in 2003, but NASA later decided to keep staff on board the station at all times. Russian officials expect the next manned launch of its Soyuz craft to take place in late October or early November -- it had initially been scheduled for September 22. A crew comprising Russians Andrei Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev and NASA astronaut Ron Garan went up to the ISS in March to honor the 50th anniversary of the first voyage of space pioneer Yuri Gagarin. But this month's failed launch was a spectacular blow for Russia after it had become the sole

After all the time and money that went it to building this thing we could loose it.
Its such a good peace building project for the world. I dont see anything else that brings the world together like this project



[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/13c2e3bb02b0.gif[/atsimg]

I did a search and didnt find a thread on this but as we know the search engine is not perfect please disregard if this has been posted

Originally posted by pez1975
It would be very sad if we lost the space station.

After all the time and money that went it to building this thing we could loose it.
Its such a good peace building project for the world. I dont see anything else that brings the world together like this project

edit on 30-8-2011 by pez1975 because: (no reason given)

Haven't there just been stories recently about private companies moving toward operational craft to resupply and service the ISS? Sounds like a great time for the Private Sector players involved in that to pull out all the stops and "save the station" by bringing out a fully operational version ASAP.

It seems to me, this would be one of those rare moments where 1 single event would make a company for decades to come. Anything but abandoning the ISS. That's outright criminal to the world not just the participating nations.

First Skylab, then Mir and now the ISS?? Is anything we do as a society not looked upon as disposable anymore??

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

I agree the pubic space industry needs to step up or maybe the US government should reveal there new space plane to the public and and save the day that would be awesome IMO

Though it's appreciated that the OP is trying to bring a different angle on the story of the fate of the ISS in the near future, the link does not seem to be working and a discussion has been ongoing in this ATS thread as well.

Check the link, lets see if its the same story or has new information, thanks.

reply to post by Illustronic


its not the same artical ill try to fix the link

Originally posted by pez1975
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

I agree the pubic space industry needs to step up or maybe the US government should reveal there new space plane to the public and and save the day that would be awesome IMO

I also agree that the pubic space industry needs to step up.
I have no idea if the US government will ever reveal exactly what space/Hairoplanes they are working on.
Is it really too much to ask for them toupée revealed?

(Sorry, couldn't resist..)

reply to post by pez1975

You said: "It would be very sad if we lost the space station."

It is to be expected. The handwriting was on the wall. The shuttle goes by the wayside and, its product, the ISS. No big surprise there. Both system have served their need as supporting the US aerospace industry.

But things are getting interesting. Suppose that aging relic, despite the continual "remodeling" and additions, is shortly to have a serious problem that requires within a few weeks the evacuation of the crew?

There is no escape module that has been built into the ISS system with all of those scientific appendages. Why is that given that even the shuttle could not always be counted upon as a rescue vehicle? Rather strange...

If a life-threatening problem develops in the ISS that requires fairly immediate action, will the crew be allowed to die or will they be whisked away to safety by some undisclosed means or will that "undisclosed means" be revealed at last as the mysterious triangles? (One last possibility would be that the ETs could easily rescure the crew.)

Would not a rescue by a triangle not be a dramatic way to break the secrecy of such craft to the world? Would not the secret keepers be forgiven if they managed to save a handful of very visible humans by such a revelation? You bet, virtually instantly villians to heroes they would be. Could we conceive of there being a false-flag event to make such a grandstand event possible?

This is all going to get very interesting.

There are several platforms NASA had in mind to resumed manned missions to the ISS, they just didn't count on the recent Russian mishap to interrupt normal operations. I don't think any of the NASA related plans are secret. I'm not sure which system is the furthest along but I believe the ESA's Ariane 5 heavy lift is the frontrunner for various command modules in development by several space supporting companies. So way to much to list here.

A link.

reply to post by Aliensun


The ISS can be controlled entirely from the ground, including lifting it to higher altitudes with the systems in place, for quite a long time. NASA is just disappointed to lose the possible research and experimentation time should the ISS go uninhabited for an amount of time.

There are also two Soyuz's docked on the ISS with life support until October and November that will bring the crew of 6, 3 in each Soyuz, back to earth. This is the contingency plan put in place a long time ago, and refreshed as needed. Look at all of the photos and models of the complete ISS and notice the two Soyuz's docked.

maybe some good could come from the loss of the ISS maybe they will start to build a perminate lunar structure

reply to post by pez1975


It's basically the same article except a crew of 3 were to end their stay on the ISS September 6, and not the 22nd as they say, but who knows which news wire article is accurate in that regard, I just read the 6th on two different sources.

Individual writers do take artistic license to make their report/article more interesting, or sensational, with the same basic facts. It's the writer that gets basic facts wrong I question the most.

SpaceX actually has contracts to supply the ISS with the "Dragon" spacecraft.

On August 18, 2006, NASA announced that SpaceX had been chosen, along with Kistler Aerospace, to develop cargo launch services for the International Space Station. The plan called for three demonstration flights of SpaceX's Dragon capsule between 2008 and 2010. SpaceX may receive up to $278 million if they meet all NASA milestones. Kistler failed to meet its obligations with NASA, and its contract was terminated in 2007.[23][24][25] NASA decided to re-award Kistler's portion of the contract after a competition.[26] On February 19, 2008 NASA announced that it had chosen Orbital Sciences as the new winner.[27] NASA awarded a cargo delivery contract to SpaceX on December 23, 2008. The contract calls for a minimum of 20,000 kg (44,000 lb) of cargo over up to 12 flights to the ISS at a cost of $1.6 billion USD, with options that increase the maximum contract value to $3.1 billion.[28]

The first of the three contracted demonstration flights was successfully flown on December 8, 2010.[29 On December 8, 2010, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying an unmanned SpaceX Dragon lifted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on COTS Demo Flight 1. The launch was a success, and the Dragon cleanly separated from the Falcon approximately 10 minutes after launch. Three hours of orbital maneuvering testing were conducted at an altitude of 300 kilometres (190 mi; 160 nmi) before a deorbit burn was conducted, putting the Dragon on a re-entry course that ended in a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi; 430 nmi) west of Mexico's Pacific coast.[35]

The Dragon spacecraft can carry up to seven passengers in crew configuration[8] or carry 6,000 kg (13,000 lb) and 24 m3 (850 cu ft) of payload, optionally extensible to 44 m3 (1,600 cu ft), to LEO in cargo configuration[8]

General specifications for the spacecraft that apply to both crew and cargo configurations include: 18 Draco thrusters,[38] dual-redun­dant in all axes: any two can fail and still have complete vehicle control in pitch, yaw, roll and translation. PICA-X heat shield[38] designed to withstand Earth atmospheric reentry, even of return velocities from Lunar and Martian destinations.[5

Dragon Spacecraft

The ISS has become the source of a lot of speculation recently, I have my conspiracy hat on and I smell a rat. Why did the astronauts have to evacuate the ISS for lack of food when the space shuttle Atlantis delivered 3.6 tonnes of cargo which included (food, spare parts, equipment & supplies)???

iipdigital.usembassy.gov...

Did the food run out that quickly? Maybe the astronauts were debauching on space food?


Something don't smell right...

and then there is this report: